When Montreal Canadiens General Manager Marc Bergevin held end of season 2018-19 press conference back on April 9, he spoke of many of the positives going the team has into the 2019-20 season. For starters, the 2018-19 season saw a 25 points improvement from the prior season. He spoke about how the Canadiens have the 9th youngest team in the 31-team NHL. Also worth noting, in the upcoming 2019 NHL Draft, the Canadiens have 3 of the first 50 picks.
So while hockey fans check out online sportsbooks and wonder who has the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, Canadiens fans are left pondering when will they return to the playoffs.
Despite what Marc Bergevin stated at the press conference, I tell fans not to read to much into this, Why? While it’s true the Canadiens finished the 2018-19 campaign with 96 points, and 11 players had career best seasons; Max Domi , Tomas Tatar, Jeff Petry, Andrew Shaw, Phil Danault, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, Brett Kulak, Victor Mete, and Jordie Benn all enjoyed personal bests in either goals, assists, or both. And Carey Price, who had a slow start, finished top 5 in goalie stats. While Shea Weber, who missed the first two months of the season due to injury, was still the leader on defence.
However, the fact remains that regardless of all the 2018-19 positives, the Canadiens still missed the playoffs in 2018-19. And there is no guarantee that the Canadiens will benefit for being as healthy as they were this past season. Or that the up and coming teams such as Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers, won’t surpass the Canadiens next season with parity being so tight in the NHL. And yes it’s true Habs have lots of new prospects joining the team suck as Jesperi Kotkaniemi , Nik Suzuki, and Ryan Poehling, these players are still in the devlopment phase.
Marc Bergevin is now entering year 8 as General Manager of the Canadiens, the 5th longest tenure in Canadiens history. In Bergevin’s first 7 seasons, the Canadiens have only won 3 playoff series. And the team has missed the playoffs three of the last four seasons. Patience is running out quickly for the GM. Let’s hope his optimism holds true, especially for suffering Canadiens fans.